Hot food: Al cartoccio

A bag of shellfish with irresistible aromas. Photo: Steven Siewert

What is it?

The Italian term for baking food enclosed in paper or foil (the French term is en papillote). Traditionally used for cooking delicate fish, it's increasingly popular with chicken, vegetables, pasta and even fruit desserts, because it is effectively its own little steamer, sealing in all the natural flavours and aromas.

Where is it?

VictoriaAt Bistro Gitan in South Yarra, co-owner Ed Reymond says snapper or hapuka en papillote with orange and fennel is one of their most regular specials. "We seal it with little wooden pegs that the customer takes off at the table," he says.

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"It's a great technique because it retains all the juices and keeps the flavours together."

The linguine di mare al cartoccio at South Yarra's Caffe e Cucina turned 25 years old in August this year, starring on the blackboard menu since the restaurant opened in 1988. "We could never take it off," senior chef Leonardo Bohorquez says. "It's such a nice surprise when you unwrap it at the table like a present, and the aromatics, the seafood and the tomato all rush out."

The cleverest use of cartoccio technique goes to chef-owner Rob Kabboord, of Northcote's Merricote, who wraps seasonal fruit, such as beurre bosc pears, in paper with sweetly spiced pain d'epice for a spectacular open-at-the-table dessert. "I love the theatre of it," he says. "It steams as it bakes, really concentrating the flavours."

NSWAt Woollahra’s Buzo Trattoria, head chef Chad Muir wraps a small, whole wheel of Piemontese tomino cheese with confit garlic cloves and thyme in baking paper and bakes it for eight minutes at 250C until the cheese is meltingly soft. “It’s insanely popular,” he says. “The cheese is soft and gooey and all those nice vapours whoosh out at the table and go up your nose.”

At North Bondi Italian, the seaside crowd goes for Rob Marchetti’s spaghetti with spanner crab, tomato sauce and chilli ‘‘al cartoccio’’, baked in a paper bag.

Fulvio Lancione, chef of the new Hello Sailor bar in Darlinghurst, says baking in paper is the best way to trap all the moisture and flavours and not lose them. “We’ve done it with snapper and tomato couscous, with olives, capers and lots of basil,” he says. “It’s great because the cous cous absorbs all the juices inside the bag”. His tip for doing it at home? “Wait for the bag to puff up like a balloon, then you know the steam is doing its job.”

3. To make two oven bags, take two 50-centimetre-long sheets of wide kitchen foil, and fold in half so they join end to end. Crimp the sides together to seal, leaving the top open. Loosely line the inside with a sheet of baking paper.